


Running

by Skyepilot



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Inhumans (Marvel), Kissing, Love Confessions, Older Man/Younger Woman, Skye | Daisy Johnson's Superpowers, Undercover, anti fascism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-22
Updated: 2018-06-22
Packaged: 2019-05-26 16:55:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15005249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skyepilot/pseuds/Skyepilot
Summary: S4 AU. They left the Framework, but Daisy and Coulson are still on the run.





	Running

**Author's Note:**

> Part of this is directly cribbed from Justice League: Star Crossed.

"It's like we never left the Framework."

She leans against the brick alley wall and pulls the trench coat more tightly around her.

It seems almost a bit cliché, but they needed a way to hide her field suit.

They both stay very still, alert, as they hear the ATCU searching for them on the streets. The sound of the helicopter above.

He looks down at her in the dim lighting from the cloudy night, tilting his head at her like he's been transported somewhere else for a moment.

The whites of her eyes gleam up at him, staring into his, watching them crinkle in delight at the corners.

She can't help but smile in return.

That even as bad as things are right now, they're here together. After everything, that's something.

The footsteps clashing on the ground with voices suddenly draw closer and he ducks his head down, feels her hands on his waist beneath his dark jacket as he bodies both of them up against the wall.

The only sound between them is breathing, steady, together, as they wait to find out if they'll have to fight their way out of this.

The risks of doing this where there are civilians and people watching, with an enemy that uses collateral damage as a warning to keep in line.

It becomes more distant, the sound of the enemy, and he steps back, her hands on him, then finally letting go to drop to her sides.

"Somehow, I knew that I would love you always."

He sighs and looks at her like she stole his heart all over again. Like he still can't believe that it has happened to him.

Then he takes her hand, and holds it in his, wrapping her fingers around his with his other hand.

"We don't have much time," he reminds her. "The city is under martial law. We have to get you out."

"So we can keep fighting," she reminds him. Because that's the only reason she would ever leave now.

"Yes," he tells her, pulling her with him out of the alley.

The streets are quiet, in a way that describes a kind of terror, rather than law and order.

They walk like spies walk like they are supposed to be here, like this is their home.  
  
She squeezes his hand when they notice some of the soldiers on the other side of the street, weapons in hand.

He turns them at the same time into the nearby restaurant and shuts the door behind them.

"You must be starving," he says with a soft smile, that is both fake and not at the same time.

She nods and then he talks to the waitress while she tries to not look over her shoulder to see if they're being followed.

The hostess is clearly upset, and tense, looking out the window at the soldiers. Knowing she is not like them.

Her eyes fall on Daisy's gauntlets peeking out from under the arms of her coat, and her eyes get large.

Daisy starts to say something, but the woman looks at her like she's familiar, her face suddenly calm. "Come with me. I have a table near the kitchen."

They follow her back further into the restaurant, and she lets them sit, gives Coulson the view of the door.

"There is another exit through the kitchen. Into the alley," the woman tells them. "And dinner is on us."

"Thank you," Coulson tells her with gratitude in his voice, and Daisy looks at her like she's a miracle, amazed.

The hostess smiles and walks towards the kitchen.

"I feel like we're putting all of these people in danger," Daisy says under her breath, as Coulson takes her hand across the table.

"They're already in danger," he says. "You can change that."

It helps to steady her, and she starts to pretend to look at the menu but ends up mostly looking at Coulson instead, who is staring back into the restaurant, profiling.

"I've never had korma," she tells him. "Is that good?"

"It's delicious," he tells her. "Are you hungry?"

"Yeah, always," she assures him, as their waiter approaches with glasses of water and takes their order quietly.

The hostess returns and shows them a scarf balled up in her fist. She asks for permission and then wraps it around Daisy's hair, hiding it.

"How do I look?" she asks Coulson when the woman leaves again to go to the front.

He starts to reply when they hear the voices, making sure that they're just loud enough so that everyone in the restaurant can hear.

"We're looking for a man and a woman with dark hair," one of the soldiers says loudly. "They would've come in in the last half hour."

"That describes a lot of people here," the hostess says, waving around the busy restaurant.

Coulson watches Daisy's hands ball into fists, as her eyes meet his, then she relaxes and leans across the table, kissing him.

He follows along, leaning forward to kiss her back, while they hear the shuffling around in the restaurant.

Finally, they leave, and Daisy comes up for air first, her face a little flushed as she blinks at him. "Sorry."

"Don't be," he tells her with a smirk, only breaking his gaze when the hostess comes up to them again.

"I think we'd better get something to go," he tells her.

"Thank you," Daisy tells her again, and starts to take off the scarf.

"Keep it," the woman says with a smile.

  
###

  
"This is really good," she mentions, eating out of the plastic to go containers.

They sit on the top of the bridge, facing back towards the city. All the chaos in the distance.

He watches her eat, having some kind of idea what's going on in her head right now.

When she's done she sets it down, and toys with the silk scarf she tied around one of her gauntlets.

"We need more people to fight back," he tells her. "More of your people. You're not deserting them."

"I know," she says with a nod, and he can see her face twisting a bit, so he wraps an arm around her shoulder and hugs her against him.

"You're a pretty good fake kisser," she says with a sniff, and he takes a finger and uses it to push some of the hair blowing across her face because of how high up they are.

"Thanks," he says, clearly flattered. "You're not so bad yourself."

He's trying to keep things light, he doesn't want her to feel guilty for doing that, it's a pretty standard hiding-in-plain-site tactic.

"I'm a lot better when I'm not faking it," she says to him, pursing her lips together like she's preparing herself for some sort of rejection.

The comment leaves him speechless for a moment.

He frowns at her expression a bit, and she starts to open her mouth to say something, probably apologize again, when he pulls her against him and kisses her.

They're very high up, and maybe he should be more careful for that reason, but he wants her to know he's not faking.

Besides, Daisy would rescue him if he fell. She already has.

Still, he doesn't have a death wish. He holds onto her tightly and it takes her a moment before she kisses him back, rather than just let herself be kissed.

Something about it is more tender and sweeter than the kiss in the restaurant when she was faking like she wants to make it mean something this time.

And Daisy is fearless, once her mind is made up. She's not worried about them falling.

He thinks about all the time she must have spent on rooftops when she was running, as she settles onto his lap, swings a leg over him, anchoring him against the steel girder with her legs.

Her hair blows around her shoulders and his face, as he stares up into her face lit by moonlight, and feels her fingers stroke his hair and trace along the line of his jaw, and press her thumb against his bottom lip before she ducks her head to kiss him there.

He thinks about what she said to him in the alley, about somehow always knowing.

It never occurred to him that she might want him. That he had even more love to give her that he hasn't yet. It's powerful. Emboldening.

But he knows that he would choose her above all.

He will always choose her.

"I was going to tell you earlier," he says to her when their lips part, faces still close. "That you looked perfect."

"Perfect?" she asks him, with a raise of her eyebrow.

"Yes. Everything about you."

"Okay," she says, wrapping her arms around his neck. "I could get used to that."

He kisses her smile.


End file.
